Jodi Franzese, Nassau's first inspector general, to join district attorney's public corruption bureau

Nassau Inspector General Jodi Franzese, the first person to hold the position, submitted her resignation to the legislature Thursday after majority Republicans placed her in holdover status at the beginning of this year.

Franzese will become chief of the Nassau district attorney’s public corruption bureau on June 2, said Brendan Brosh, a spokesman for Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly.

She fills a vacancy left when Christine Maloney, the office's former public corruption bureau chief, departed in August 2022, Brosh said. An acting chief has been leading the unit since.

Franzese was appointed inspector general following the indictments of former County Executive Edward Mangano, his Chief Deputy County Executive Rob Walker and other top Republican officials in Nassau.

The office has vetted county contracts for irregularities and alerted legislators when proposed land deals, judicial settlements and vendor agreements were not in the county's best interests.

Her four-year appointment expired at the end of 2022. Republican legislative leaders did not commit to a reappointment.

Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park) said in March his caucus would leave Franzese in the position until at least the end of the year and that the next county legislature should decide on a reappointment after it is seated in January. 

Franzese said at the time she would prefer to continue serving under a fixed term of office.

In an interview Thursday, Nicolello said he was "surprised" by her resignation.

"I fully expected her to stay on board and be a candidate for renewal" in 2024, he said.

Nicolello said he and Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams (D-Freeport) would select an interim inspector general to lead the office for the rest of the year. "We're not diminishing that office at all," he said.

In a letter to Nicolello and Abrahams on Thursday, Franzese said: “I write to notify the Legislature that, as I have previously mentioned, I will be resigning from my position as your Inspector General. My resignation will be effective close of business on Thursday, June 1, 2023. I greatly appreciate the opportunity afforded me to serve as Inspector General, and it has been a distinct pleasure working with you.”

The Legislature created the Office of Inspector General in 2017, weeks after Democrat Laura Curran was elected county executive.

Republicans had blocked Democrats' efforts to create the office when Mangano was in office.

Both sides voted unanimously to appoint Franzese to the role of county watchdog in December 2018.

Franzese is a former prosecutor who worked in the Suffolk County District Attorney's office from 1998 through 2015. After that, she was senior inspector general for the New York City Department of Investigation before coming to Nassau.

By the time her appointment expired, County Executive Bruce Blakeman was in office and Republicans held the majority in the legislature. It put her in a tenuous position, experts said: responsible for oversight of a Republican administration, but lacking job security from the GOP legislators who have the power to grant a full appointment.

In her office's annual report for 2022, issued several weeks ago, staff expressed concern about the uncertainty created by the holdover status.

"The resultant situation is that, although having a fixed term is recognized as an essential underpinning for [the Office of Inspector General's] independence and stability, the Inspector General now serves without the key, basic foundation of a fixed term," authors of the report wrote.

"While the Inspector General remains committed to her mandated mission, her holdover status is not conducive to the exercise of independent judgment, public confidence in OIG’s independence, or the optimal functioning of OIG in crucial things such as staff recruitment and retention, and long-range planning of activities."

Legis. Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D-Glen Cove) said the office has effectively been weakened.

“If your job is not secure, and your staff’s jobs are not secure, I would think it would be difficult to voice opposition to various situations, should you want to feel comfortable questioning certain things," DeRiggi-Whitton said.

“I'm not all surprised that she is making this move," she added.

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.